Applicant's U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/760,091 filed Apr. 14, 2010, entitled “A System And Method Of Encrypting A Derivative Work Using A Cipher Created From Its Sources”, the entire specification of which is incorporated herein by reference, describes a method of encrypting derivative works to permit the encrypted derivative works to be legally distributed to consumers.
As can be appreciated by those skilled in the art, there are certain challenges associated with the generation of encryption/decryption keys from source data. One challenge is associated with the variability of source data extracted from digital sources generated from the same source art work. Due to reproduction format, compression technique, etc. there is a significant likelihood that the digital source(s) used to generate the key(s) to encrypt a derivative work will be at least slightly different from the digital source(s) that must be used to generate the keys to decrypt that derivative work. It is incumbent upon the distributors of encrypted derivative works to ensure that the encrypted derivative works can only be decrypted using keys generated from digital sources generated from the same source art work as the digital sources used to encrypt the derivative works, and must also ensure that distribution of the decryption keys would be unlawful.
There therefore exists a need for a system and method of generating encryption/decryption keys and encrypting/decrypting a derivative work that addresses these issues.